


A Tower To Nicer Things

by BugTongue



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Ghosts, Horror, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mystery, this is not a nice story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-07-24 13:24:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16175966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BugTongue/pseuds/BugTongue
Summary: Leorio is apprenticed to Cheadle and currently working as a nurse in her world renown hospital, which is roughly the size of an airport. Something is brought into the basement level, something very intriguing and unnerving, but does Leorio have the stomach to dig deeper?Something has gone terribly wrong.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aldermoth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aldermoth/gifts).



> This is a fic for my dear friend and parnter in crime, Alder. I hope you enjoy it, pal, cause everyone else is gonna suffer with us.
> 
> A big thanks to Ftagn for beta reading this!
> 
> A note: This is a mystery! Thrills and chills for the Halloween season, so as a side project, consider leaving your theories as to what's going on in the comments. I won't tell you if you're right or not, but I'll let you know if you're hot or cold!

Cheadle Yorkshire did not do anything halfway, and it showed in the grandness of the hospital she managed. Previously it had been a decent hospital, good sanitation and competent workers, but she transformed it into a wonder of the medical world. It was here that Leorio worked while learning, more or less apprenticed to the hospital itself, if nominally to Cheadle. With test scores and grades like he'd had it wasn't a surprise to anyone that she'd picked him out for this advancement in education.

Currently, he found himself standing in front of the microwave in one of the hospital’s many staff rooms, arms crossed as he waited for his noodles to cook. A fellow nurse watched him with a sandwich in her hands. "Y'know you're gonna get cancer standing in front of the microwave like that."

"Doesn't work that way, the screen holes are too small." He shifted his weight to one foot to use the other to scratch his ankle.

"I'm not sure I believe you but fine, maybe the microwave won't but the lunch choice inside will." She took a bite of her sandwich and raised her brow as he turned to her, pulling a face.

"Yeah maybe, like your processed cheese and bleached bread is doing you any nutritional favors. I've got twenty minutes left before I go back on the floor, gimme a damn break." The microwave dinged, and he very nearly burnt his hands on the steam pulling his cup noodles out.

Lunch breaks were more of a suggestion in Cheadle’s hospital, at least in the wing dedicated to Nen maladies and phenomena. There just didn't seem to be a whole lot of spare time in which to eat or take a bathroom break or simply catch one's breath. Today was, perhaps, especially busy.

Which was why it was so inexcusably distracting when Leorio felt a familiar touch to the edge of his aura, niggling there and refusing to let go. His heartbeat sped up and he felt sweat prickle at his palms. He took another bite of his noodles, slurping extra obnoxiously for the sole purpose of the room's other occupant shooting him an annoyed look. Gradually, excitement replaced his appetite until he was poking the remnants of his lunch without even looking at it, eyes on the door. Finally he abandoned his noodles in order to bolt out the door and follow the sensation, pulse pounding. It couldn't be him, it couldn't, but yet there was the sensation of a man who Leorio hadn't seen in years. He followed it down one hall, down a stairwell, down another stairwell, into the basement level until he came to a door he'd only gone through for post-mortem anatomical lessons.

Leorio hesitated as goosebumps erupted onto every inch of his skin and something snaked into his gut like a warning. If he opened this door he could get in trouble. If he opened this door he may walk into trouble, even. However, if Kurapika was on the other side he'd get to see him again after so long, too long, and the pull on his heart was what finally urged him onward into the chilly room-and directly into the middle of an investigation.

Cheadle stood with a few other people around an examination table, a hand rubbing her mouth except when she had something of importance to add. The subject of their closed debate was the mass of flesh atop the table, the poorly kept remains of what was most likely a person. It was person sized anyway, person shaped, Leorio supposed, although the sight was hardly recognizable let alone identifiable as to which human it might be. The snake in his guts constricted around his stomach, and he blanched, averting his eyes.

Kurapika's Nen signature remained.

His first thought was that the body might be Kurapika, and he dismissed it entirely. Then he wondered if it might be possible Kurapika murdered this person, and that was harder to push from him mind. It wasn't impossible, Leorio himself had seen Kurapika get incredibly violent in the past, a murder with this level of disrespect to the dead was a bit more than he expected from Kurapika but it wasn’t out of the question. Perhaps this was a member of the Phantom Troupe, someone Kurapika would want to be seen after the fact.

He stepped closer, the other people in the room practically disappearing from his senses. The skin that was left was practically leather, bones showing through and vermin mostly gone except for the safe crevices of the skull and the condensed offal hidden beneath shredded clothing. This corpse had been decomposing for a long while, but where? They clearly hadn't dug it up, there was no obvious soil. Another step closer, and some of the hair on the skull of the body was revealed, but it was matted with what may have been mud or blood or the nest of some small rodent. Difficult to make out the color, although it could appear to be blond if he really looked.

“Leorio, do you feel how strong this Nen signature is?” Cheadle asked, tugging his attention away from the body with a firm tone. “Judging by the state of the corpse I think this was a violent death, the sort where the Nen lives on after the body fails. I'd like to visit the scene, you might as well come with me since you came all the way down here.”

“You're not a crime Hunter.” His words sounded foolish even to his own ears, but he was in some stage of shock. His eyes sunk back to the body and its weathered flesh, and he felt unsteady.

“No, but I do specialize in Nen-related maladies and- Leorio?” Cheadle sounded concerned, and she stepped away from the table to push Leorio out of te room and into the hall. “Please take a seat before you fall over, that would be a very long fall considering your height.”

Leorio sat on the ground, nodding, and took a few deep breaths to calm his rabbiting pulse. “I think I'll sit this one out, sorry ma’am.” He wiped sweat off his face and dried his hand on his shirt.

“That might be for the best, you appear to be having a panic attack. A well controlled one at least, you're doing just fine, I forget sometimes that not everyone has been exposed to as much death and decay as I have. Go ahead and go home, since you won't be able to work like this, and get a few extra hours of sleep.”

He nodded as she rattled off further instructions on how to take care of himself after a shock like that and to come back with a clear mind. It was a disappointment as much as it was a relief to leave the hospital and catch the train home, but there was no denying it; he couldn't stand another minute anywhere near the radius of that Nen signature. He changed out of his scrubs in the bathroom in a haze, his mind seemingly unable to focus on the sensations of doing up the buttons of his shirt, tucking it into his pants, slipping his arms into a light jacket that would keep the early autumn chill from sinking in too deep. Dissociation was what this was, but for now he’d take it. Anything to keep his mind somewhere safe, somewhere far away from recent events and things he wish he could unsee. The memory of wiggling vermin chewed through his memory and he squeezed his eyes shut for a second, putting the nausea back in its metaphorical box, and allowed his feet to take him to the train station.

Leorio stood on the train, one hand on the strap hanging from the roof. The car wasn't empty like it normally was when he finally left the hospital in the evenings, but he appreciated that, because with so many bodies and hands to keep track of he couldn't think about the decayed person in the hospital basement. The train stopped at the station and the doors rolled open, letting cool autumn air in as people left and were replaced. Already some houses were decorating for October, though not as extensively as in York New and not at all like in his hometown. Here on the foggy island off the continent he grew up on they celebrated the beginning of the end of the year with morbid glee, wrapped up with the harvest and it led to some invigorating festivals.

He couldn't focus on any of it now, the morbid decorations of the season only helping to cement in his mind the earlier gore. Once home, he shut his windows against the breeze, having left them open by habit born from years living in more sultry weather. Tea--tea might help, as well as the extremely dry reading he was doing on physics he thought might help with his Nen practice and formation. One shrieking kettle of hot water and a prepared mug of chamomile and honey later, and he curled up in his room, notably with all the lights on. More light meant less eye strain, and certainly had nothing to do with keeping the shadows of the room at bay.

As the time on his bedside clock blurred into red obscurity like the fading brake lights of a car, Leorio’s lids began to droop. The words meshed together, alphabet soup in film noir, it made his eyes cross and then close as his nose dropped to brush the book in his lap. It wasn’t the smell of wood pulp that brought him back to his senses, but the sensation of missing some deeply important piece of information, some hint that things were worse than previously assumed. It made his gut clench and his heart shoot into his throat, spine straightening as he remembered yet again the aged and weathered flesh with its once-hidden bones now unprotected.

Considering the way his eyes darted to the closet, then the window, then the door, Leorio could tell this wasn’t going to be a very productive evening.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things take a turn for the strange, the worse, and the better. At least, of course, it seems that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm late, oh well, I had a feeling I might be. Still going strong though!

If leaving the hospital was difficult, remaining within its walls after seeing the body became a herculean task in short form. It was a file to the back of Leorio's head, like salt in every wound and also his eyes. Only his greater desire to help those in need kept him on task and centered enough to ignore the force below the building.

It was a force indeed, emanating some chaotic sensation that felt like violence, as if it meant harm to anything that got near it. It was a strong enough sensation that even non-Hunters in the faculty were beginning to whisper that something cursed may have been brought into the basement in that black body bag.

Hiding his agitation was an actual impossibility, and soon enough his mentor pulled him aside to eye him critically. Cheadle's nose twitched, and then she squinted. “I thought you were just sensitive to strong Nen emissions but I'm beginning to think you actually recognize it. The investigation is live, if you have anything to share, now would be a good time.”

Leorio cleared his throat. “Aren't you a lawyer? Don't you know you're not supposed to ask things like that without arresting me or something?” The idea made her tilt her head, considering.

“You didn't murder that person and I'm not a police officer, this isn't that kind of investigation. Nen users are most often Hunters, which means they're outside of local and international law anyway, much as I've tried to fight that. No, this is an inside search, and if we can identify the body first then we can look into what happened, and hopefully who else was there.”

“Ah.” Leorio swallowed, standing rigid as he considered his options. He did recognize the Nen, but that didn't mean it belonged to the body. He could be obstructing justice by claiming so… Or, by saying nothing, and hiding that he might know the killer.

Because, of course, the body wasn't who it felt like.

Cheadle patted his shoulder. “It's alright to be uncomfortable around death, it's rather natural. Living things want to keep living and signs of death mean nearby danger. You can come down and help me with the identification process in an hour.” She allowed him to finish up clinic work first and foremost. Clinic work was something Leorio enjoyed doing because it let him speak to people without getting too deep into an ailment, no need to second guess himself for something as small as a throat swab or a piss cup. Allowing him to do so was also likely calculated to let him walk down into the basement with as clear a mind as possible.

The chill from the freezers sank into him like an otherworldly hand, blunt nails breaching his skin where the scrubs rode up on his large frame. Goosebumps erupted along his arms and lower back, creeping up his spine as he was led to one of the cold chambers. Cheadle opened it with a mechanical slide and a slight grating of metal, revealing the bones and leather within. Most of the pests had been removed already and the body put into the freezer. Leorio took the moment to look away, turning his gaze instead on his instructor. “Why do you have a forensics lab grade body box under your hospital?”

Her eyes didn't leave the body as she answered, holding a hand over it as if trying to read the copious amounts of Nen imbued within its form. “I work with the law, but again, the world of Hunters functions on a different level entirely than the rest of the world. Investigation of the footwork sort goes to Mizaistom and whatever teams he assembles, but I occasionally do the more hands on approach when it fits my skills.”

“And this fits your skills?”

“Absolutely not, but it was practically on my front doorstep and I had a freezer available.” She sighed, retracting her hand to place it on the edge of the drawer door. “The local police still want to be a part of this, but they haven’t seen the crime scene properly, not the way we can.”

“The way we can?” Leorio looked along the doors of the other freezer boxes, eyes refusing to settle on any one spot. He crossed his arms, then uncrossed them so he wouldn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt.

“With Gyo I saw the scene myself. I went when I got a text about a strange body and the entire place is a jungle gym of these ropes of Nen, concentrated like some kind of web. The police couldn't even walk near the body.” She looked at him again when he stiffened and brought a hand up to scratch his stubble.

“That sounds impressive, I’m sure they had no idea what was going on.”

“I understand that this is a difficult subject for you, but I really would appreciate you sharing what you know.” Cheadle modified her tone excellently, but Leorio knew well enough that she was growing either annoyed or concerned, potentially both.

“I don’t know anything, I’m sorry.”

“You’ve been my student for a couple years now, you can trust m-”

“I don’t know shit about this!” Leorio regretted his tone the moment the words left his mouth so he closed his eyes and stepped back away from the freezer, feeling sick to his stomach. “I’m sorry, that was unprofessional.”

“No… I’m pushing, I know I am.” She took one last look inside the coldbox before shutting it and opening another one with a much fresher cadaver. This one was at least a donated body, and while it didn’t make him feel any better, the strange panic he refused to address began to seep out of his muscles as he moved closer once more. “While we’re down here, we can at least discuss the effects of lung cancer, since that was one of the illnesses you specified in your last essay.”

Her calm, assured tone lulled him the rest of the way until he could hardly notice the threatening presence not three feet to his left.

\---

“Kurapika’s phone, state your business.”

A beep, and Leorio took an unsteady breath. “Hey Kurapika, you won’t believe the shit that’s happening at the hospital this week. It’s crazy actually, I swear I can feel your Nen on this guy, or girl, it’s uh… Really hard to tell at this stage. Haha, it’s pretty gross really. I wish you’d pick up so I could tell you in person, or more in person than a voicemail. This guy must have really pissed you off…”

His room was dark with the sun settling on the other side of the apartment complex, sending the space into deeper hues than the time of day truly called for. He stared up at the ceiling with one hand pulling at his undershirt at his stomach. The knot from earlier had reformed during the day until it was a hard stone in his gut, preventing him from even considering dinner. Heartbeat rabbiting, he realized he should either say something else or hang up.

“Just um, call me back as soon as you can. Please.” He pulled the phone away so the screen would wake up again and let him end the call. His thumb hesitated over the red icon, but he tapped it and let the device drop onto his chest with a dull sound. Another shaky breath and he closed his eyes, letting the anxiety sweat out through his pores. Kurapika was fine.

Kurapika was just fine.

He may have murdered someone in an astonishingly horrific manner, but Kurapika himself was fine. He had to be. Clearly he’d used his chains or whatever to lock his opponent in place. And then the Nen just stuck, whatever was stuck to the… the body. It could work like that probably, it was magic bullshit after all anyway. Leorio held his hand up, turning it this way and that to see its faint outline move in the darkness. Magic bullshit was exactly what he was learning as well, of course, so his friends didn’t leave him too far in the dust. He let his face relax while his eyes focused harder on the outline until he could actually see his hand like a network of wiggling white lines; his aura, life energy.

Leorio focused on his hand, then reached out to touch the side of the dresser next to his bed. He imagined the feeling of the air near the wall in front of him and pressed his fingers into the particle board until they went though and he saw the blur of white energy across the room. He pulled his fingers out of the portal and back to safety and took a much steadier breath. Nen was stupid, and so full of possibilities that he couldn’t take the signature coming off that body to mean that his best friend and the most skilled survivor he knew was dead. That was more absurd than any proof he could ever possibly be shown, and so, Kurapika was alive and ignoring his calls as usual.

(If he wasn’t alive, Leorio was going to drag him back to this world and kill him again.)

\---

The news was as sensationalist as ever, going on about the war here and the drought there, bolstering one politician and deriding another, and mentioning the warehouse mystery murder in vague and alarming terms. Leorio looked up every newsreel on the subject anyway, scrolling forums at hours he should but could not sleep just to give his frantic mind what it wanted.

There was a high chance Kurapika murdered someone and left the body out in the open for some reason. If that was the case, it would be better if Leorio found him before the rest of the Zodiacs did, then he could tell him to lay low. Sure they may be better detectives than him, but he knew Kurapika better, that gave him an advantage they didn't have.

This would be a lot easier if Kurapika would ever answer his damn phone, though.

Leorio shut his laptop and dug his fingers into the headache forming behind his eyes. Digital glare and too little sleep, not eating properly, sitting with poor posture, likely dehydrated; Leorio was getting way too close to acting like the man he sought. It was time to lay down for a few hours and rest, make use of the time he had to rest when he could. But.

The uneasy feeling refused to leave him for very long, slithering back up his spine until he checked his phone again. No new messages, no new calls, three junk emails to be deleted later when he felt like procrastinating something else. He locked his phone and pulled the hoodie off that he'd been wearing around his house, then picked the phone up once more and dialed before putting any thought into his actions.

“Kurapika's phone, state your business.”

He hung up, breathing hard as if winded until he put his head in his hands and cursed. Kurapika always ignored his phone, always, this was just the way of things and god damn if Leorio was a smart man he'd have deleted Kurapika's phone number over a year ago.

He called only once more before crawling into bed and shoving his head under the pillow to maybe force his mind to shut off for a while. If he couldn't actually sleep, at least some mental rest wouldn't hurt.

\---

Leorio went back to work, and he focused on the job and resolutely stayed out of the dungeonesque basement that had taken on a truly dreadful vibe. He knew in his gut when he was standing directly over the corpse in its frozen coffin, no matter what he was doing he was aware, but the work itself was enough for him even if it wasn't distracting enough to save his mood. A crease was finding a permanent home between his brows, a downward tug to his lips when he didn't actively put forth the effort to be cheerful, and he was becoming… Withdrawn.

So far no one had brought it up to him, maybe Cheadle had said something or maybe he was just so obvious about it that they were giving him his space, but either way it allowed him to focus more on his duties and less on pretending to be in the right emotional place. He could feel his fingers itching to hold a cigarette, his body telling him the nicotine would help with the stress eating him alive, but the fact of the matter was he simply didn't have time for smoke breaks, not enough time in the day to relapse on shitty habits.

Finally, something snapped within him and at lunch he forwent eating altogether to storm down into the room full of freezers that shouldn't have been so available, to stand in front of the body he couldn't stand to be near. He called Kurapika again, and this time on the third ring, it picked up.

“Leorio?”

His chest constricted as tears of relief bubbled up and slipped down to dampen his shirt. Leorio choked on his response. “K-Kurapika, oh my god you, you picked up. God I was so worried, I was really beginning to think-”

“I'm sorry, I was busy. I missed you too, please don't cry.” The voice on the other end was soft, oddly hollow, but it was there and it had been years since he'd last heard it. The sensation of wrongness did not dissipate, but at least now he could blame it on the situation of Kurapika being in trouble with the law rather than mortal anxiety.

It was a step in a direction at least, hopefully the right one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something bright and beautiful.

The text message read:

_Yo old man, we didn’t get to hang out last month, so Alluka and I are coming over and you can just deal with it. Gon says he’ll come too._

Leorio looked down at his phone, eyes bleary in the darkness of his room. Leave it to Killua to text him at five in the morning, half an hour before his alarm went off and thus making it impossible to go back to sleep as the anxiety of needing to prepare for company burned a hole through him. Damn it. It wasn’t that he didn’t love the kids so much as he was just too busy to really keep up with them, or even properly enjoy their company. But they didn't know that, they were all roughly in their mid-teens, they were just having fun and well. He supposed Killua was right, he could just deal.

Rolling onto his back set his muscles in motion until each of his four long limbs stretched to their maximum capacity, and he vaguely wondered if people could use their Hatsu abilities by accident. He might hit someone without meaning to if he wasn’t careful, maybe. He picked his phone up and sent a bland affirmative to his friend, then swiped out of the app, pressing his thumb against the green call button for a name he didn’t even need to look at anymore but had designated “1Kurapika” for easy access.

One ring, three, five, and voicemail. “Kurapika’s phone, state your business.” A beep. Leorio sat up but didn’t yet drag himself out of the blankets, hiding from the morning chill.

“Hey peeks, the kids are coming over presumably sometime this week and you really shouldn’t miss out again this year, you already ghosted us for the spring break get together and those kids are… asking about you less actually. You answered me once, please pick up again, it’s important this time. Listen to your messages and call me back, or just show up, whatever you wanna do I guess.” His head dropped back against the top of the headboard as he hung up, leaving a few seconds of silence at the end of his message. The moment he considered getting up, his phone went off with his morning alarm, solidifying the decision yet sapping him of his built up resolve to follow through.

For the first time since he started working under Cheadle, he truly did not want to go in to work. The idea of walking in and feeling that eerie, upset presence in the basement filled his bones with ice. He thunked his head back against the headboard to literally knock himself out of it, then rolled to his feet and began his day. Whether he wanted to go or not, he had things to learn and people to help, and once he was done with this minor on-the-job study Cheadle would test him on some mysterious list of things he wasn’t allowed to ask about ahead of time. If he did well, she’d let him move on to the next aspect of this strange apprenticeship.

Despite the morning pep talk and reassessment of goals, Leorio couldn’t seem to get his head out of a dreary fog. It was as if he were somehow separated from himself, and once again he listed the symptoms in his head and came up with an obvious mental disturbance but god damn it he could handle being in the building with a dead body, strong Nen presence or otherwise. Regardless, he stuck mostly to clerical work and didn’t talk unless he needed to. The urge to call Kurapika again sat in his heart like a stone, the Nen signature disturbing him but now he was sure at least that it wasn’t Kurapika. He was sure, he had spoken to Kurapika. He was sure.

He was in the basement.

He had no memory of walking down there, but there he was, vague recollections of faces he had passed and eyes that had taken note of his passing. He stood in front of the freezer containing the corpse that oozed life energy like a spring, an endless aquifer. A hand on his arm made him flinch slightly, a muted response from his normal theatrics, but that was just the effect this strange force had on him. He looked to see his coworker from the hallway peering at him.

“Are you feeling okay, Paladiknight? You seem to be having some kind of… fit.”

“Hunh?”

“You’re like, twitching a little bit. Can I check your pulse?” She reached out and he automatically flinched away again, feeling a drop of sweat slide down his face into his scruff. Somewhere, distantly, he knew he needed to shave soon. Blinking to bring himself back to the current moment, he shook his head and let out a thin laugh.

“I’m fine, sorry I worried you.” He spared one last, slow glance at the door of the freezer before moving around the other nurse and setting a brisk pace back up to where he was needed.

\---

“What do you mean we’re early? I told you this morning we were on our way, dummy.” Killua was taller even than the last time Leorio had seen him, his sister not far behind and clearly don't letting her brother try out his fashion sense on her. These days she was opting more for dresses with flouncy skirts and shawls that reminded him a little bit of his teacher slash boss slash fellow Zodiac.

Leorio thought back, trying to piece things together even as the fog inside his skull grew more and more dense as the stressors piled up. Right, and Gon would meet up with them, probably the next day but it was always possible he’d show up in the middle of the night and cause a commotion and Leorio would miss out on yet more sleep. He smiled and pulled his two friends into his arms. “Right, guess I just forgot. It’s been kind of rough at work.”

“You don’t say, maybe you should take the week off and hang with us more, you look rough.”

“We want to show you the pictures we’ve been taking with the camera Killua bought for us!” Alluka grinned at him before ducking her head and rummaging in her purse for a rather expensive looking digital camera. “He says if we get really good at using it we can try film next.”

Leorio avoided Killua’s offer to instead look at the photos Alluka was showing him, with the occasional side note from Nanika. Killua narrowed his eyes at him taking the easy out, but didn’t push the issue, allowing Leorio to take a much needed breath. The photos were of all things; crowds of people, plants, the two of them in various locations, it seemed anything Alluka had enjoyed looking at got a picture taken of it. It was also the first thing that actually managed to get him to relax incrementally since, well, god knows when. Eventually Leorio straightened up and rubbed the side of his neck.

“Alright, are you planning on staying here then?”

“Yeah! It’s going to be a big sleepover.” The girls’ face shifted slightly, eyes darkening, and she bounded further into the house and set her bags down beside the couch.

Leorio wet his lips and let his hand drop, turning away from the now piercing look Killua was giving him. “Hey. Leorio,” Oh boy, his actual name. “Y’know we’re friends right? If you need any help-”

“Thanks kid, it’s just work stuff you can’t do anything about though, really.” And Kurapika likely not showing up to another get together, missing more and more time they could all be spending together. Wasting his life on people who don’t give a shit about him or feel remorse for their actions. He gave Killua a small, tired smile before closing the door behind them and stepping into the kitchen to get a glass of water, something to lash his mind down to the bounds of reality so he can at least focus on his friends for a while. Or rather, the friends who made the effort to show up at least.

\---

The week became a strange blur of activity, words, and physical contact. Between the hugs, getting caught up in play, and having legs casually draped across his lap Leorio felt he should remember more of what took place. Instead, he felt like he dreamed half of it, even Gon showing up did nothing to shake him out of his stupor. Two more days of this, he reminded himself, two more days and they’d all leave and he could get some very needed time to himself. Get his head planted firmly onto his shoulders.

“Kurapika’s phone, state your business.” He hung up without leaving a message this time, standing in the hall outside his apartment door. He’d contacted Kurapika once, and it was enough to make him burn for more, for anything more. Now that he had one sign of life he was back to the desire to connect, maybe Kurapika’s absence was why he found it so difficult to focus at the moment.

Then he remembered the crime scene.

Ropes all over the place, concentrated around the body, potentially still there. He had a chance to sneak into the warehouse that's been all over the news, that Cheadle had mentioned herself. According to her it was near the Hospital, he could go and sniff around a little, look for signs of Kurapika that any average investigator would have missed. He unclenched his jaw in order to stretch away some of the tension. Then he set off towards the hospital.

The night was still shedding layers of deep blue, the last rays of the sun diminishing as a purple and orange miasma claimed the night sky, heat lightning writhing between clouds that wouldn’t dump their rain for hours yet. The mix of Autumnal chill and hanging moisture that would continue to threaten for most of the night sunk into Leorio’s layers of clothes, into his jacket and flannel and tshirt, into the holes beginning to form between the fabric and sole of his shoes because even in his current life position he couldn’t stand to throw things away that weren’t yet entirely broken. Instead of getting on the train this time he walked, rubbing his arms against the shivers beginning to animate him beyond the purposeful swing of long legs wrapped in denim.

Without knowing where the building was, or even what it looked like, Leorio knew when it was nearby due to the sensation of Kurapika’s Nen alone. It was like nails down a chalkboard, the rub of fingertips against a dry suitcase; something that unsettled him and made him want to turn back around and run flat-out in the opposite direction. He felt sick, enough so that he stopped in his tracks across a smaller residential street from the warehouse. In the darkness it seemed to loom over even his own impressive stature. Leorio sucked in a breath, straightened out of the cringe he found himself curling into, and crossed the road.

Behind him he felt a flicker of something familiar, but glancing over his shoulder revealed nothing, and the sensation before him was too great for him to be distracted for long. He stepped over the police tape and pushed in through the front door. Cheadle had said this was an inside investigation, that it was Hunter business, so in that case his Hunter’s license should be more than enough proof of clearance.

The inside of the warehouse was absolutely and unrecognizably trashed. Mostly empty, what machinery and other objects were now crushed and crumpled detritus strewn carelessly about the place. The feeling of walking through something he couldn’t see sent a shiver up Leorio’s spine before he remembered that he was capable of using Gyo. Within moments of focusing it was as if the world before him wavered, then revealed the thick links of chain draped over every surface. He knew where the body had been just by following where the web thickened into a veritable bird’s nest of blindingly bright life energy. He squinted, stepping nearer and around a large hunk of metal, then stopped dead in his tracks with a harsh intake of breath.

There, mostly hidden among the strands of chain, was Kurapika. The light illuminated him, made him glow to the point it was hard to see his edges, certain details, but it was him without a doubt. Leorio stumbled forward and caught his eye, watching as his friend’s face lit up with recognition and surprise.

“Leorio, what the hell are you doing in here?” Killua’s voice caused him to whirl around and slip on a few shredded pieces of particle board, off balancing him enough for him to land on his hands and knees. “This place gives me the creeps, you definitely shouldn’t be here.”

“Me?! You’re the one who followed me like a stalker, Jesus Christ kid you nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“You’ve been acting really weird and now you’re out here sneaking off to some crime scene, do you know what kind of look that gives you?” Killua came over to stand nearby as he stood up. “You haven’t been paying attention to any of us, or your surroundings, or anything. What are you even up to?”

“I just saw- Kurapika!” Leorio scrambled to his feet, remembering what he’d seen earlier and looking for his wayward friend. With his concentration shot, the chains were invisible once more and should allow him to see easier. Despite this, it seemed Kurapika had vanished without so much as a whisper. “I… No, he was…”

He turned around to ask Killua if he’d seen him too, where he’d gone while Leorio was distracted, but now Killua was watching him like he’d sprouted a second and possibly even a third, misshapen head. “There was no one here but you. Look I know you’re old but you can’t really be getting senile just yet, are you losing it?”

“Fuck you, he was right there! I _saw_ him, I saw him with my eyes and he looked over at me, he-” Leorio turned again to face the empty room, the sensation of a ball of yarn unraveling within his stomach. “He was right here.”

Killua was silent for a moment, then Leorio felt him tug at his arm. “Okay. Okay, maybe he was there, but he’s not now, and you’re shaking. You didn’t grow up anywhere cold did you?”

“No I… didn’t.” Leorio finally dragged his eyes away from the yawning room and focused on his friend, allowing himself to be led out of the warehouse.

“Yeah, then you probably need to come back to the apartment and warm up before you get sick. Come on, I didn’t tell anyone I left and Alluka might get worried if we don’t get back soon.” The walk from the crime scene to the train felt like walking on storm clouds, heat lightning now rumbling within himself as he remembered that short, bright moment of eye contact he’d had with Kurapika. That he’d definitely experienced.

He was sure of it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some answers are questioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I late? Sure. But am I ever on time?
> 
> Excerpt featured from the bottom of page 153 of the Rohen/Yokochi "Color Atlas of Anatomy", second edition.

What bothered him so much wasn't that Killua didn't believe him, Leorio considered on the last night that the group would be staying at his place. It was that Killua was able to doubt at all, that somehow Killua missed something that was bright as day to him. The sensation of coming unraveled continued over the last couple days of the visit, like he was losing his grip on reality somehow. He could tell that the kids wanted to stay longer, that they were worried about him, but he smiled and sent them on their way without allowing himself to break character too visibly. Yet another page he ripped out of Kurapika's book, he supposed.

Kurapika, the reason for so much of his emotional and now possibly mental unrest, the man who disappeared without a trace and now seems to be haunting the edges of Leorio's life, driving him to walking down to the warehouse again on a night he didn't need to be at the hospital again the next morning. The rain clouds from almost a week ago had yet to break, but this time he was smart and wore a heavier jacket for the walk. Leorio wondered if perhaps he'd lost some weight, if that might explain his sudden weakness to the elements or if it really was just that much colder here than York New or his hometown.

A shudder passed through him as he entered the still completely trashed warehouse. The police tape was still up but he doubted they'd come by since the last time he had, remembering again that Cheadle said this was a Hunter's investigation now. That might mean anything, Hunter's were notorious strange and fickle creatures, going about their tasks in bizarre manners to get at whatever their personal interest in the project was.

Another two steps, another deep shiver, and he remembered the chains. With the activation of Gyo came the shining visuals once more, as well as the reappearance of Kurapika as he stepped around to the center of attention--that unnerving ball of chains. Their eyes met again and Kurapika opened his mouth with a voice that once more seemed to be muted, possibly just less musical than Leorio remembered.

“What are you doing here?” Kurapika raised a hand, but made a face and brought it back to himself with a single step backwards. “You should leave.”

“Leave, what?” Leorio shook his head, stepping closer to cross the new distance. “I finally found you, in person this time, I've finally caught up with you. I'm not leaving now.”

“Oh Leorio…” A buzzing began to take up space somewhere far, far away, somewhere between his eardrums and his brain as Kurapika's expression fell from wary to regret. “You caught up with me weeks ago.”

Leorio swallowed. “Like… When I called and you picked up you mean, right? Look, Kurapika, we really need to talk about some things. Like how you need to stop hanging around here because the Zodiacs might be looking for you. We found the body, but it's okay, they don't know you had anything to do with it yet.”

His voice had begun to speed up until he was tripping over every other word. Something in his gut was screaming, an agonized wail that he could barely hear himself over, breath coming in short bursts. Kurapika stepped closer to him this time, first once step and then another until they were face to face. “I had everything to do with that body, considering it's me.”

“Fuck you, that's a horrible thing to say.”

“Have you ever considered why it is I only answered your call when you were standing in front of me?”

“Shut up, shut up this is the worst joke you've ever told me. God damn it Kurapika tell me this is a joke.” Leorio brought his hands up to his face as if to make sure he was awake, real, seriously having this conversation. “You're right in front of me, there's no way your body is somewhere else, looking like-” he covered his mouth and looked down suddenly, feeling dizzy.

Kurapika stared at him, looking so sad and so kind and so unlike himself. “Please sit down, Leorio.”

He didn’t need to be asked twice, the moment Kurapika spoke he was moving, bending his knees until he could let gravity bring him the rest of the way to the dirty floor, eyes focused somewhere far below its surface. Kurapika, of all people, was… He was… Leorio shut his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, and then promptly threw up. “How… How did you die then? If you really did die.”

“I can't say.” Kurapika tilted his head so his golden hair shifted, details of the wall just barely visible through his form. He still shone like he was lit from all angles, but as he approached silently Leorio realized it was more that the light came from him. From the Nen that made up his being.

“Can't say, why? Will you get in trouble or something?”

Kurapika laughed softly and crouched in front of him, shifting until he could kneel on the other side of the upchucked mess. “With what deity? If there is one I've clearly not garnered their attention yet. I can't tell you because I don't know, I can't remember that recently.”

Leorio wiped his mouth off with his sleeve and mulled that over. “Do you remember anything?”

“I remember you.”

The warehouse was silent. No crickets, no frogs, no mice, no bats. Clearly bugs were willing to crawl or fly all the way up to the body but nothing of any higher intelligence was. This should probably have lead to enough bugs to hear the activity of but there was nothing.

“You remember me, but not how you died?” Leorio felt another swoop of panic, like going over a loop on a roller coaster. Kurapika was dead. Kurapika died, a good while ago too if that corpse was anything to go by. “How… Long have you been here?”

Kurapika deliberated on the question, or perhaps the wording of his answer. No sound accompanied his footsteps as he walked around Leorio in a half-circle, one hand coming up to rub the buttons of his dress shirt. “A while, many months. There was a mercy in that I couldn't feel my body decaying or hosting a million lifetimes of insects, but I could watch. For a very long time there was nothing for me but to watch.” He stopped at the edge of Leorio's peripheral, facing one of the truck doors at the side of the building.

“Jesus. Nothing? You can't leave?” Finally Leorio picked himself up off the floor to follow Kurapika across the room.

“I believe I can be near my body, or this place where I died. I suppose there isn't anywhere else that remembers my aura.” He looked sideways up at Leorio. “I think I'm glad you never saw my face in any recognizable fashion. I don't think you would have liked it, before the decay.”

“That wasn't you, you could never look like that. That was not you.” It wasn't even a sentiment he believed anymore, but he spoke more out of refusal to allow it to be true.

“Death is hideous, Leorio, don't be childish.”

A lump the size of a peach pit was forming in Leorio's esophagus, choking any retort he may have formed. After a moment, he lifted his hand and screwed his eyes shut, reaching out beside him at a glacial pace. If his hand hit something then Kurapika was undeniably real, but if his hand touched nothing then Kurapika was… Deniably real, he supposed. He could still see and hear him, even if touch was ruled out.

All thought on the deniability of Kurapika's existence left his mind as his hand plunged into ice cold fire. The sensation make his spine go ramrod and the air pause in his lungs for a moment. Leorio opened his eyes to see his hand halfway through Kurapika's torso, Kurapika looking at the attached arm with muted dissatisfaction. His eyes flicked to Leorio's face as the hand retracted an instant later.

“What do you think I am, now?”

“I-” Leorio shut his eyes to collect himself, focusing on the question to keep from being overwhelmed by the situation. “Nen. You're what's left over when the body's not involved anymore.”

“Nen, but I'm more than that right?” Kurapika moved closer to him, reaching up to brush impossibly cold knuckles down Leorio's cheek. “Thoughts, feelings, independent of any physical brain.”

The words seemed to leap from Leorio's lips as he turned towards the unnerving sensation. “There's recorded incidents of changes in personal preferences after an organ transplant.”

“So?”

“So there… There may be more to personal energy than just a brain. It could be that your electricity holds just as much personality as your organs.”

Kurapika smiled and retracted his hand. “Electricity, but with what conduit? The body I had? The ground I last stood on? How long will it take for all of this to let me go?”

Leorio reached up to touch his cheek, realizing how little he'd breathed in the last minute and a half. He took a deep breath, the details of his surroundings beginning to come back into focus. The storm rumbling in the distance, building; The debris in the room he had evaded as easily as Kurapika as they crossed the room; An intrepid beetle crawling up his pant leg.

“I dunno, maybe however long it takes you to give up on your goals.” His words weren't meant to cause harm, but for the barest moment he saw the floor through Kurapika's body.

“That's assuming you aren't the one holding me here.”

\---

Leorio showed up early in the day and left late in the evening, visiting on every day he didn't work as well as the days he should have, but called out of.

Not that Kurapika revealed himself every time.

Some days there was the barest brush of his presence, a fingertip along Leorio's arm, a sigh from another room, the vaguest sensation that he wasn't alone in the warehouse but unable to pinpoint the eyes watching him.

Other days they sat together and talked. About Leorio's work, about the friends and contacts they both knew and some that Kurapika had never met, about the weather and the passage of time. They talked until Leorio noticed Kurapika’s disinterest. He leaned over himself, a half-empty bottle of beer in one hand that marked the end of the pack he’s brought along with him for the visit. For nerves, he’d explained before. “Something wrong, peeks?”

“What an open question,” Kurapika’s lips curled although his expression remained distant. “At the moment, I believe I’m simply bored. No offence to you but I want to know more, I want to read something new.”

“Oh shit, yeah I could bring you some books. Wait, actually I think…” He twisted around to dig into his backpack. Folders, spare clothes, and a phone charge brushed his fingers until he grabbed a hold of the anatomy textbook he kept for the same of review. He bought it second hand so it didn’t have much resale value, he might as well keep it around so he knew for sure what he was doing when it mattered. He pulled it out and opened it in his lap, then held it out for Kurapika to-

Take.

Kurapika tilted his head while his lips thinned out, his expression more pitying than insulted as Leorio sheepishly set the book down for Kurapika to look over. With a slow breath, Leorio leaned back against the wall they were camped out near, bringing the bottle to his lips and taking a deep sip. It was nearing the end of his evening here, soon he would have to clean up and start the long walk home. For now he watched as Kurapika’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper, hands balling into fists in his lap. He guessed the sight of gore might not be welcome after Kurapika watched his own body decay, but when he leaned forward again to turn the page to one with more words and less pictures, Kurapika simply held up a hand.

“I can’t read this.”

“What?”

“I can’t read this. Or, I mean that I can’t retain this. I’m actually a very quick reader, I can take an entire page in with a sweep of my eyes and process it as I look over the next page. But. Even taking this one word at a time, it’s just…” He gave up on finding the right word and chose to shake his head instead. Leorio finished reaching for the book and dragged it back into his lap.

“... Want me to read it to you?”

Kurapika replied with such a soft “For all the good it’ll do,” Leorio nearly missed it. His face scrunched up but he adjusted the small glasses perched on his nose, and began to read the text.

“The pharynx is attached to the base of the skull and is continuous with the esophagus below the level of the larynx. Although part of the digestive system, the pharynx does not show the arrangement of layers characteristic of the gastrointestinal tract. In contrast to the esophagus and intestine, the layer of circular pharyngeal muscles (constrictors) is located externally between esophagus and pharynx…”

When he looked up, he was alone again amongst the rubble with only the beetles to keep him company.


End file.
